NollyTube: Why Nollywood Is Stuck With Romance

In 2025, Omoni Oboli's YouTube film, “Love in Every Word,” became a cultural phenomenon, garnering 31 million views on YouTube and ranking as the top five on Google's Year in Search 2025 (movies). Its catchphrase “Achalugo” became the most searched Google word in Nigeria last year. YouTube has since become one of the most preferred platforms for Nigerian filmmakers to reach audiences. Yet, the movie releases have become an endless cycle, often with the same stereotyped cast acting in similar love stories. While some audiences complain about the rinse-and-repeat plots, these filmmakers are holding on to the seemingly foolproof system.

The success of Oboli's film signaled to many filmmakers that romance movies are highly desired. And although some audiences scorn at the unoriginal plots and recycled locations, filmmakers are stuck in the loop because the millions of views make the repetition profitable.

For Chioma Paul-Dike, cofounder of Filmmakers Mart, a production facilitation company, the focus on the romance genre can be attributed to its algorithmic success. “Filmmakers have noticed how the audience tilts to romance. So why not give the audience what they want?” she says.

Interestingly, the romance genre has been a longstanding form of Nollywood movies since the early 90’s, with movies like Yemi My Lover, Power of Love, and more making waves across Nigeria, and still fondly remembered as classics.

However, with Omoni Oboli TV releasing movies weekly, alongside other YouTube channels like Uche Montana TV, Bolaji Ogunmola TV, Bimbo Ademoye TV, amongst others, there is an onslaught of about 10 new romance movies every week on the platform. Audiences are beginning to complain that “all the movies feel the same,” with the same cast pairings, making it hard to differentiate between the characters and storylines of each film.

This existing repetition happens because the formula has worked since the early days of filmmaking in Nigeria, says filmmaker Ogochukwu Umeadi, and it makes marketing of the movies easier. “Once audiences see films they like, they watch them. When that happens successfully, it creates a bandwagon effect for other filmmakers who see that this stuff actually sells,” he tells OkayAfrica, “People have realized it's a formula, ‘Everybody is doing romance. Let me also do romance because that's what will sell.’ Then it becomes the easy way out to market and sell the film to audiences, because it's something they are familiar with.”

Beyond the marketability of films, however, the cost of producing them is also a deciding factor in why romance appears to be a safe genre for many producers. This also impacts certain aspects like locations, props, and more.

“If the producer is thinking of how much they want to spend on a particular project, it influences every other thing that follows up. In some cases, where the producer is trying to save costs, they might use limited locations, and the romance genre can accommodate that because it often works for the story,” says Paul-Dike. 

Financial consideration also influences the choice of distribution, which is why many producers prefer YouTube because they can reach their audiences directly without experiencing gatekeeping or needing to expand their budget for advertising. YouTube’s algorithm typically pushes its movies to audiences who want to watch them.

According to producer Chris Odeh, YouTube is a dependable market for many filmmakers, he says, “People are deciding to either risk a lot of money to tell some stories they have in their hearts or choose a more certain market. So they've chosen to go with YouTube, and they're looking for stories that apply to that market. That's why a lot of romance and neighborhood dramas that are very similar to old Nollywood are on there.”

Watching a movie on the big screens at the cinema requires the audience to leave their homes, and the effort they make to see it would have them sitting through the entire sequence, even if they lost interest in the film by the 10-minute mark. However, with the smaller screen, the viewer can swiftly move on to the next movie on YouTube if the first proved uninteresting. 

This is why filmmakers arguably produce more nuanced stories with layers and complexities for the cinema, while faster hooks are made for YouTube, where it is guaranteed that gaining or losing audience attention is just a scroll away. 

Nollywood actress, Sharon Rotimi, says while filmmakers consider audiences when making stories, the primary consideration is entertainment that reflects their lifestyle, stories they can relate to. “The audience is just asking for good stuff, and YouTube is very accessible to many who want stories. There can never be too much romance,” she tells OkayAfrica, “People seem to think that all romance is romcom. But [a lot] of it is drama. We need to explore romcoms, and it doesn’t have to be slapstick; it can be dry humour.